Is This Upside Down American Flag Shirt Offensive?

PacSun is dealing with backlash after a social media storm over Memorial Day weekend.

Little brothers and their annoying friends named "Travis" will have a hard time getting their hands on the above shirt after it sparked controversy over Memorial Day weekend. The black and white T-shirt featuring a knowingly rebellious inverted American flag was pulled from Pacific Sunwear (PacSun) retailers around the country after thousands of people took offense to its front logo on social media. Shopper Rachel Zawacki-Kuss‎ posted a photo to the company's Facebook page on Saturday with the caption: "I saw this at your location at Tanger Outlets this morning in Foley, Alabama. I understand freedom of speech but this shirt, displayed prominently at the entrance of your store, for Memorial Day weekend is more distasteful and disrespectful than anything I thought I'd see. I will not be shopping at PacSun again." The post has since received over 2,700 "likes" and nearly 8,000 shares.

As a retailer grounded in youth culture, PacSun values artistic and creative expression through the brands that we sell in our stores. Out of respect for those who have put their lives on the line for our country, we have decided to stop selling the licensed flag t-shirt and are removing it from our stores and website immediately. We thank the men and women in uniform for their extraordinary service.

-Pacific Sunwear, Inc.

The shirt is a product of A$AP Worldwide, an extension of the A$AP Mob hip-hop collective, which features big name rappers like A$AP Rocky and A$AP Ferg. While the shirt was officially removed from PacSun retailers and appears to be gone from asapmobshop.com, the latter is still selling this shirt with an upside down flag on the sleeve and this shirt with a near-naked woman draping herself in a backwards flag.

American flag imagery has long been embedded in the culture of pop music, both as a sign of respect (Bono) and as a sign of irony or protest (Marilyn Manson). The punk band Rise Against has performed before a backdrop of an inverted flag, and Rage Against the Machine once sold a black and white shirt very similar to the A$AP shirt:

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So, is it offensive, or merely freedom of speech?

According to Title 4, Chapter 1 of the United States Flag Code: "The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property." In that sense, it might be considered less offensive if the members of A$AP Mob wore the shirts onstage as a political statement, but much more offensive for merely shilling these shirts in suburban malls amidst the alluring aroma of Auntie Anne's pretzels.

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